


Four Things About Diana Berrigan

by livrelibre



Category: White Collar
Genre: Character Study, Character of Color, Chromatic Character, F/F, Femslash, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-20
Updated: 2011-03-20
Packaged: 2017-10-17 03:27:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/172423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/livrelibre/pseuds/livrelibre





	Four Things About Diana Berrigan

Diana has never really talked all that much to June, Neal’s landlady, but that one time when June conned her into explaining that paperwork to her, she had a brief flashback to being in her grandmother’s house. Her grandmother died when she was still pretty young, but before that, when her dad's diplomatic posting was too dangerous or she was on holiday from the international school, she would go stay for a week or so with her grandmother in X. It was a big old house, full of creaky furniture, not light and spacious and elegant like June’s house. Her grandmother’s eyesight had been failing by that time and Diana would have to read letters and bills and magazines to her grandmother, puzzling the spidery handwriting of her grandmother’s remaining contemporaries or sounding out the terms of service for credit cards or reading the articles in Reader’s Digest and Jet. She had a moment of nostalgia, which was probably why they were able to put one over on her.

*

After Charlie’s blood had spattered her like a Jackson Pollack painting, his body shielding her from the flying bullets, she made a vow to herself that no one else would die for her. She would learn to protect herself. The first time she used the knife trick that Charlie taught her to take out a kidnapper who was holding a little girl hostage, she knew she was starting to pay it forward.

*

Diana got the tattoo halfway through FBI training. It had been weeks of running, hand-to-hand training, shooting, and strategy sessions and that had been on top of the constant sneering about the diplomat’s daughter. It was holiday weekend--one of the few times off she had since training started--and she just passed the tattoo shop on her way to lunch. In the midst of the gothic roses and skulls and kanji in the window, a design caught her eye and she stopped short on the sidewalk. The design was almost stark in its simplicity, a few links of chain-like design with a line drawn through them and she knew she needed it. This was her rope, her lifeline made of steel with a line drawn through that said “This far and no farther.” It hurt but not as much as some things she’d been through. And the rest of the trainees bothered her a whole lot less after that.

*

Diana met Christie at a poetry slam in Dupont Circle. It wasn’t her usual spot, but some friends had dragged her along, telling her she needed to get out more and get some culture. She refrained from rolling her eyes and telling them she had had enough culture to last her a lifetime and all she wanted now was a beer and some sleep. All thoughts of the latter went out of her head when the tall sister with dreads took the stage and blew everyone away. Diana had never much been into poetry but she knew her gut instinct. And she was certain after she first set eyes on Christie, that had found someone worth everything.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [I Am Not A Damsel In Distress (and I have been fighting the good fight) - The Ani DiFranco Remix](https://archiveofourown.org/works/175546) by [elrhiarhodan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/elrhiarhodan/pseuds/elrhiarhodan)




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